NBQ wins delay in $250m Global case

Dubai, June 20, 2012

National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain (NBQ), a bank in the UAE, said on Wednesday it had won a delay in a $250 million judgement against it in a case involving Kuwaiti group Global Investment House.

The sum was placed with NBQ in August 2008 as the first part of Global's purchase of a 20 percent stake in the bank through a 2.36 billion dirham ($643 million) convertible bond issue.

As markets slumped in late 2008 and Global faced debt problems which forced it into a restructuring, it cancelled the planned purchase and asked for the money back. But NBQ said it was entitled to keep it.

In May this year, a Dubai appeals court ordered NBQ to pay Global the money plus $79 million interest. A court of cassation in Dubai has now suspended enforcement of that judgement until September 4 when another appeal by NBQ will be heard, the bank said on Wednesday.

Global is negotiating its second debt restructuring in three years. Having completed a $1.7 billion rescheduling in 2009, it said last September it would ask creditors to halt repayments while it sought a new deal. - Reuters